# Junk drawers



## NextJen

I'm cleaning out drawers and cabinets in my kitchen to prep for painting and other re-model work to be done. 
I swear, I could have won big on Let's Make a Deal with some of the items I found: 
birthday cake candles,
allen wrenches,
spare christmas light bulbs,
book matches,
lighter,
misc screws, nuts, and washers,
assorted screwdrivers (even tiny eye glasses types),
wrenches,
electrical tape, masking tape, painters tape,
fuses (one so tiny I can't even imagine what it is for),
string,
broken wire hanger that had been bent into a hook,
small shepherds hooks,
pads for the bottoms of chairs (that help them slide on the floor),
wood glue / wood marker,
wire nuts,
slide ruler,
cup hooks,
a whistle,
spray mace,
2 small flashlights,
and a couple empty packages for automotive light bulbs.


----------



## GURPS

nice collection


----------



## vraiblonde

Monello has a junk box that has all kinds of strange things in it.


----------



## GWguy

I have another name for my junk drawer.  I call it the garage.  And Basement.


----------



## NextJen

GURPS said:


> nice collection


I probably should have ended with, 'a partridge in a pear tree'.


----------



## GURPS

NextJen said:


> I probably should have ended with, 'a partridge in a pear tree'.




as soon as you throw something away you will need that item in the next 3 - 6 months


----------



## NextJen

GWguy said:


> I call it the garage.



I have been working on cleaning/clearing out my garage. My fiance was a mechanic. Since he passed, I had to have his mechanics tool chests moved from his work into the garage here at home. I've had to go through them and all of the odds and ends he had stored in there. I knew he was a pack rat, but for the most part I steered clear of 'his domain' in the garage. I'm still not finished, but I'll get to it all eventually.


----------



## GWguy

NextJen said:


> I have been working on cleaning/clearing out my garage. My fiance was a mechanic. Since he passed, I had to have his mechanics tool chests moved from his work into the garage here at home. I've had to go through them and all of the odds and ends he had stored in there. I knew he was a pack rat, but for the most part I steered clear of 'his domain' in the garage. I'm still not finished, but I'll get to it all eventually.


If you need a hand sorting things out, ask.


----------



## NextJen

GWguy said:


> If you need a hand sorting things out, ask.



Thanks. I'm working through things slowly. Handling what I can, and I have 2 grown kids that are nearby that have been helping. It's sad, but also cathartic to go through it all. I just hope what GURPS said isn't true - "as soon as you throw something away you will need that item in the next 3 - 6 months"


----------



## GWguy

NextJen said:


> Thanks. I'm working through things slowly. Handling what I can, and I have 2 grown kids that are nearby that have been helping.





NextJen said:


> "as soon as you throw something away you will need that item..."


Always.  I've proven that repeatedly.


----------



## GURPS

NextJen said:


> I just hope what GURPS said isn't true - "as soon as you throw something away you will need that item in the next 3 - 6 months"




I hope not, I was referring to the small items in the junk drawer 

That has proven true time and time again. I'll hold onto a part for yrs, finally dispose of it, Now I am at Pep Boys buying a replacement


----------



## Bann

I don't care if I need 5 tiny little screws or a fuse or small lightbulb thingy as soon as I throw it away!  I don't want to have a junk drawer. I have 1 drawer in the kitchen with a few things in it, but I clean it out regularly. I even do that with my kitchen gadget drawer. After I had to go through  my mother's 60 years of stuff, after having to also get through my sister's things,  I swore I wasn't going to be doing that in my house.  My tools container and my "hardware might need this later" container is kept to a minimum.  

I am so anti-collecting it's not funny.  What's bothering me these days is that people have given me things that have added up to a collection.  Those things are gonna get whittled down probably by the end of the year.  I just don't like a ton of things hanging around to keep straight, clean, dust or clean out.  

Someone who shall remain nameless is quite the opposite, but he keeps it mostly contained.


----------



## kwillia

GURPS said:


> as soon as you throw something away you will need that item in the next 3 - 6 months


So true! I finally moved that magnetic extendy-thingy that you use to pick up metal items you've dropped because it was attaching itself  to things I didn't want it attached to... two weeks later my husband asked if I had one and I couldn't remember where I moved it to... it has been in that same place for years and we never needed it....


----------



## frequentflier

Bann said:


> I don't care if I need 5 tiny little screws or a fuse or small lightbulb thingy as soon as I throw it away!  I don't want to have a junk drawer. I have 1 drawer in the kitchen with a few things in it, but I clean it out regularly. I even do that with my kitchen gadget drawer. After I had to go through  my mother's 60 years of stuff, after having to also get through my sister's things,  I swore I wasn't going to be doing that in my house.  My tools container and my "hardware might need this later" container is kept to a minimum.
> 
> I am so anti-collecting it's not funny.  What's bothering me these days is that people have given me things that have added up to a collection.  Those things are gonna get whittled down probably by the end of the year.  I just don't like a ton of things hanging around to keep straight, clean, dust or clean out.
> 
> Someone who shall remain nameless is quite the opposite, but he keeps it mostly contained.


If you need to relocate a cat- ahem- I gifted you, I will take him back and rehome him.  LOL


----------



## Bann

frequentflier said:


> If you need to relocate a cat- ahem- I gifted you, I will take him back and rehome him.  LOL


  Nonono-that falls into another CAT-egory.   

I was really thinking of some of the things I've gotten over the years that are of the "lesser quality" type.   I have a rule that I can't get another storage or display thingy - so they have to all fit on the existing ones.  The shelves are starting to look a little crowded, so I need to get rid of some of it.

I was doing the minimalist thing way before that gal Marie Kondo!


----------



## lucky_bee

My husband has no less than 3 junk drawers in our kitchen. I've tried over the years to clean them out, he just won't let me. But we're finally moving soon, so he'll have to soon enough


----------



## Bobwhite

NextJen said:


> I'm cleaning out drawers and cabinets in my kitchen to prep for painting and other re-model work to be done.
> I swear, I could have won big on Let's Make a Deal with some of the items I found:
> birthday cake candles,
> allen wrenches,
> spare christmas light bulbs,
> book matches,
> lighter,
> misc screws, nuts, and washers,
> assorted screwdrivers (even tiny eye glasses types),
> wrenches,
> electrical tape, masking tape, painters tape,
> fuses (one so tiny I can't even imagine what it is for),
> string,
> broken wire hanger that had been bent into a hook,
> small shepherds hooks,
> pads for the bottoms of chairs (that help them slide on the floor),
> wood glue / wood marker,
> wire nuts,
> slide ruler,
> cup hooks,
> a whistle,
> spray mace,
> 2 small flashlights,
> and a couple empty packages for automotive light bulbs.


A slide rule??? Anybody used one of those since 1980?


----------



## mitzi

After my Dad passed away, I had to sort thru everything in the house and garage. In the bottom junk drawer I found coupons for Domino's from 1992.


----------



## Bann

mitzi said:


> After my Dad passed away, I had to sort thru everything in the house and garage. In the bottom junk drawer I found coupons for Domino's from 1992.



I was so over going through all the pack-ratty stuff of my mom's that I swore I wasn't going to do that my kids!


----------



## mitzi

Bann said:


> I was so over going through all the pack-ratty stuff of my mom's that I swore I wasn't going to do that my kids!



I did too and got rid of a ton of stuff that I don't use. They will find my sentimental things I kept from my parent's house but it's all in one big box. Same with my sentimental stuff, all in one big box.


----------



## littlelady

This thread made me think of when we moved from Calvert to Montgomery in 2016.  My advice is clean out your junk, periodically.  If you don’t, it will be overwhelming.  That is what happened to us.  It got to the point of being over it, and we got rid of stuff that we shouldn’t have.  Never again. That is why I don’t have a junk drawer, anymore.  Happy cleaning out, y’all.


----------



## John Z

That tiny fuse is from a string of Christmas lights.  YW.


----------



## NextJen

SailorGirl said:


> That's got to be hard.  So sorry that you're forced to go through it.


Thank you.


----------



## ginwoman

GURPS said:


> as soon as you throw something away you will need that item in the next 3 - 6 months



Yup, every time!!


----------

